The Three Seas initiative's goals that focus on infrastructure development and catching up with Western Europe go hand in hand with the EU's growth concept, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday after a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev was officially welcomed by the Polish head of state at the Belvedere Palace in Warsaw earlier on Thursday.

At a press conference after the meeting, Andrzej Duda talked about cooperation between Poland and Bulgaria within the regional Three Seas infrastructure cooperation initiative. In this context, he referred to the initiative's July summit in Warsaw, with a guest appearance by US President Donald Trump.

"It was a very important event for us, the Polish people, but I hope also for Central Europe. I hope that apart from very good political cooperation in the future it will also translate into tangible infrastructural projects that could be carried out in our part of Europe", President Duda said.
See also:Polish-Bulgarian Economic Forum in Warsaw

The key goal of the Three Seas initiative is to develop the infrastructure of Central and Eastern Europe "at an accelerated pace" in order to "catch up with the western part of the EU as quickly as possible", the president added.

"I believe this goal goes hand in hand with the general idea of EU growth, seen as the development of states that aims to ensure an equal level of infrastructure development and equal living standards", Andrzej Duda said.

The Polish head of state said also that the future of the EU had been the main topic of his talks with President Radev.

He added that Poland and Bulgaria shared "the same and unequivocal" stance on the migration crisis.

"We are against the relocation mechanism, we are against obligatory quotas. We believe that the migration crisis must be solved in a different way: we should use preventive measures to protect the EU borders on the one hand, while offering assistance to refugees and potential migrants in situ, namely, in the neighbourhood of the countries they have fled because of war", President Duda added.

He stressed there were three rules which had to be observed in the EU, namely unity, equality and solidarity.

"These are the fundamental EU principles. If they are broken, in my opinion this will mean the end of the EU, its fall leading to its disintegration", he declared.

According to President Duda, solidarity in dealing with the migration crisis means mutual support, remembering the problems of the EU's southern countries, and "acting even though Poland is not directly affected by the crisis".

"Poland is open to such solidarity", the president emphasised, adding that what he meant was financial support and deployment of Polish forces, for instance border guards. "We here will not refuse to provide assistance", he declared.

"Unity means that we operate together, that we do not try to force other countries to act against their own interests or against their citizens", President Duda said, stressing that Poland would not accept a "dictate against the Polish people", with regard to the obligatory migrant quota system.

In Andrzej Duda's opinion, the principle of equality means "opposition against a multi-speed Europe", namely, as he explained, a situation in which, "certain EU countries have control over others, and are considered better". (PAP)